I Loved You Once In Silence
by LillyOfTheValley
Summary: ONE SHOT. Draco and Hermione are forced to hide their relationship, and things are twice as bad as they were before, but they're determined to overcome.


Author's Note: I told you there'd be more. I'm stressed, and when I get stressed I write. So enjoy the angsty, fluffy results of my stress. This story goes back to my all time favorite pairing. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters; and the title, which is the title of the song used in the story, is from the amazing musical Camelot, which I also do not own. Also, certain situations come directly from a production of Camelot I saw. Not mine.

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Draco Malfoy was a changed man. He sought refuge with the Order of the Phoenix after fleeing from Voldemort because he failed to complete his task. Harry gave Draco protection, and Draco gave Harry information. As everyone shared space for over a year, Draco gradually became a trusted member of the group. It was a piece of information that he passed along that helped Harry defeat Voldemort for good.

All of the students went back to Hogwarts, Harry and company for their seventh year, albeit a year late. They also went back without the mentor of so many, Albus Dumbledore.

Despite the odds, Hermione and Draco fell in love somewhere along the lines. Of course neither of them said anything for months. It was only when Draco took a bad fall from a broom that they were brought to confess their feelings. They kept their relationship secret for as long as they could, but just after Christmas they were found out. They were immediately ostracized. Draco was already a traitor to the Slytherins, but those few members of other houses that could stand him turned their backs on him and Hermione. Hermione lost all of her friends except the Weasleys and Harry.

Every day when they walked through the halls together they heard the whispered insults, saw the pointing and glaring, and felt the pain of the rejection of their peers. After weeks of dealing with it, Hermione and Draco decided that it had to stop. They staged a huge fight, ending in a breakup, and the minute that they broke up the Gryffindors were there for Hermione again, and Draco's few scattered friends returned. From then on they were forced to meet in secret, with the help of Harry, Ron, and Ginny.

Draco stood in front of the fire in the abandoned classroom they had taken for their own. They had cast loads of protective spells around the perimeter and some clever transfiguration had created furniture. They had turned it into a cozy haven, but it still felt wrong.

He didn't turn from the fire when she came in. He heard her sit down and heave a heavy sigh.

"Hello love," he said quietly.

"Hello," she whispered back. The obvious tears in her voice made him turn. He knelt in front of her and lifted her chin gently.

"What happened?"

She wiped a tear from her face and shook her head. "It's nothing, it shouldn't have bothered me. We were at lunch today, and someone started in on how they can't believe I ever dated you. To them it was only teasing but…"

"To you it hurt."

She nodded. "Harry tried to stop it, but they just wouldn't drop it."

He brushed a tear from her face and kissed her forehead softly. "I'm sorry love, more than you know."

"I don't know how much longer I can take this. It was bad when we were out in the open, and it's impossibly worse now that we're hiding."

Draco rose and went to stand in front of the fire again. "I know you're right. I don't want you to be, but you're right." He heard her rise and sighed when she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his back.

"I love you, I love you more than anything, but this is just so hard."

"I know. Why can't everyone just accept what is and let us be?"

"I don't know. Maybe it would be better if we just quit."

He turned violently in her arms to face her. "Don't say that. We can't quit, we can't let them tear us apart." He fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around her and resting his cheek against her stomach. "I can't lose you; you're all that I have left. Before I told you how I felt I thought I would die from the pain. I love you."

Hermione sank to her knees so that they were on the same level and framed his face with her hands. "I love you too, you know that I do. And I don't want to lose you either, but what can we do?"

"I don't know."

Hermione shook her head. "There's a song I know, and I can't help thinking of it now."

"How does it go?"

She took a deep breath before tenuously beginning.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

I loved you once in silence  
And mis'ry was all I knew.  
Trying so to keep my love from showing,  
All the while not knowing you loved me too.  
Yes, loved me in lonesome silence;  
Your heart filled with dark despair.  
Thinking love would flame in you forever,  
And I'd never, never know the flame was there.  
Then one day we cast away our secret longing;  
The raging tide we held inside would hold no more.  
The silence at last was broken!  
We flung wide our prison door.  
Ev'ry joyous word of love was spoken.

And now there's twice as much grief,  
Twice the strain for us;  
Twice the despair,  
Twice the pain for us  
As we had known before.

And after all had been said,  
Here we are, my love,  
Silent once more,  
And not far, my love,  
From where we were before.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

By the time she finished the melody there were tears in both their eyes.

"You're right, it fits. It fits hauntingly well."

"I know, Draco what do we do?"

He framed her face with his hands. "Do you love me?"

The tears welled in her eyes. "You know I do."

"Do you want to be with me?"

"More than anything Draco."

"And I love you, and all I want is to be with you. So we do what we have to do. We hold out for a few more months, and once we graduate we put it all behind us. We won't go to London, we'll leave the country, and we'll get away from everybody who's causing us this misery and start over, together."

"You make it sound so easy; I wish it were so easy. What about friends and family Draco? I can't just leave them."

"Then we'll stay here and make it work. We'll show everyone how much we love each other and make them change their minds. We'll make it work, I promise you that."

"I believe you. We can do this."

He bent and kissed her as if he were a man who had been without water for months and she was his first sip. "We can. I love you."

"I love you too." She leaned against his chest and sighed contentedly. "We'll make it through this."


End file.
